The Wanderings and Thoughts of Kip Kellogg

by Vincent Spada

#4

Kip Kellogg had trouble sleeping. Kip could never fall asleep. He'd lay there for a spell, just thinking, then Kip would get right up. He'd pull on his pants, find his dirty sneakers, and go wandering into the night. Trying to find that something, that something that would make real sense.

Kip walked by an old video store, and he noticed a big sign on the door saying that they were closing. The sign also said that they were selling the rest of their old VHS tapes for a dollar a dozen, and that the tapes must go now. Kip looked at the big pile of tapes, and he thought about how, at one time, those tapes were the most advanced thing there was, at least for movies, anyway. Then, one day, DVDs came along, and suddenly, tapes were no good anymore. Kip figured that was the way with just about all things. After all, nothing lasts forever. Something might be important one minute, and then meaningless the next. Kip also thought about how sometimes that would happen with people, too. You could be super famous, and then just disappear. Kip figured that was even more true nowadays, what with instant celebrities and all.

Then he thought that they should update that old saying, about everyone in the future being famous for 15 minutes. Kip figured that now it was more like 15 seconds, and even that seemed a bit too long.

Kip wandered around a little some more and saw a hot dog vendor selling food. Kip wasn't really hungry, but he bought some french fries anyway. Kip liked potatoes, and remembered how he'd heard once that they'd originated in South America. It seemed funny to Kip that there was once a time when most of the world didn't have potatoes, or french fries, or even ketchup. Santa Claus, too, was only a couple of hundred years old. It seemed pretty incredible to Kip, and then he thought of all the things people didn't have a long time ago. Then he figured that the good old days weren't really good, that they were just more simple. But Kip thought that the old time people still might have been happier. Even though they didn't have lots of stuff, it didn't matter, because they didn't know what they were missing in the first place. Kip knew that you couldn't want what you don't know about. Maybe that was the secret to life. To not know about anything so you won't want everything. This seemed really funny to Kip, and he laughed to himself.

Kip wandered until he got to the river, and watched a ship gliding upstream. Kip thought that maybe he should get a ticket and go on a trip somewhere. He figured that maybe if he did, some great adventure would happen, with like pirates or something, and then things would change and he'd live in a new fantastic place and his life would be more exciting and have more meaning. But then, Kip decided not to. He didn't have the money, and besides, things like that never happen. And even if they did, after a while, one place becomes the same as any other. Kip knew that, no matter what, it would get boring eventually, and then he'd have to move again, and find more pirates and adventures. It was just like bubble gum, thought Kip. The flavor doesn't last for very long.

This made Kip unhappy, and he wandered over to a curb and sat down. Kip thought about how, when he was younger, he figured he'd grow up to be a famous artist or war hero or someone amazing like that. When he was younger, Kip figured for sure that he'd be someone special one day. But as Kip sat on the curb, he realized that wasn't true, and that it never would be, and that there was no more use lying to himself. Kip figured that he wasn't really that bad of a guy. He was just ordinary. There was nothing to him. He couldn't juggle, or dance, or really do anything. Kip had always wished he could have been great or the best at something, but for whatever reason, it just hadn't happened. So this was his life, he thought. Wandering around the city at night, thinking about nothing in particular. Kip hadn't pictured it like this. He hadn't pictured it like this at all.

Kip was really down now, and he still hadn't found anything that made sense to him. He had wandered back to his apartment building, but he didn't want to go in. So Kip went into the alley next to the building, and leaned up against the wall like he always did. There was a street light there, and it shined down on the brick wall just opposite of him. When it did, Kip noticed some graffiti that hadn't been there before. It read:

"NEVER FOLLOW A CULT OR A MOB. THEY'RE ALWAYS HEADED IN THE WRONG DIRECTION."

Kip looked at the words over and over again, and he wondered who had written them. Then he thought about what they said, and when he did, they made real sense to him. Somehow, when Kip read them, they were absolutely perfect in his mind, and he no longer cared who had written them. Just as long as they were there.

Finally Kip went home, undressed and went to bed. He closed his eyes against his pillow, and tried to sleep like the rest of the world.

But sadly, Kip couldn't sleep. Like always, he was wide awake.

The writer, Vincent Spada, is interested in further publication of his work. He can be reached at cemetery76@yahoo.com